rAge 2011: Need For Speed: The Run

Already a black sheep amongst racing enthusiasts, the jury has been out on Need For Speed: The Run pretty much since the second it was announced at this year’s E3.

Electronic Arts are nevertheless adamant in their attempts to silence critics and prove that The Run is worth its weight in production values and will be a worthy racing title, when it releases later this year.

For now, it’s still unclear as to the exact focus of the game with the only premise so far being the cross-country race that your player character undergoes, that takes them across various paths and terrain as they attempt to complete and more importantly, win, the sprint across the USA.

Watch the trailer above and you’ve pretty much seen what was on offer at rAge.

Just that level, with that — admittedly beautiful — piece of machinery and that objective.

“Pass 10 opponents”.

That’s it.

And once you do, the game kicks you out into a GPS-styled global map that updates a bit and the demo is over.

I honestly stood there going “huh?” afterwards.

To its credit the game looks amazingly well-detailed and does a good job of creating excitement, with many alternate routes through an otherwise linear track, and with suitably capable AI thrown in for dramatic races.

The cars handle in the arcade-ish nature that you expect of a game developed by Black Box, but that’s not a deterrent in the slightest since simulation-whores already have Shift 2: Unleashed to keep them occupied.

Definitely still with a lot to prove, The Run looks great and plays great, but whether or not it turns out to be a great game remains to be seen.

I’ve decided to reserve judgement when it comes to this game. I’ll wait for the reviews before I decide whether it’s worth it or not.

Bukris

Still seems terrible. I hate this arcadish gamestyle. They need to bring back Need for speed most wanted game style back with the latest cars + better graphics and with the fun of customizing your car like underground 2. THEN they will sell millions of copies!

Brrrr

This game looks .. er .. cute. Its will have nothing on the new forza coming out, i mean seriously – EA need to step their game up !

Opticle

Arg the only thing that has ever changed with nfs has been the graphics. The only one i have ever enjoyed was the MMORPG style one.

http://www.facebook.com/nadine.franzsen Nadine Franzsen

I’m pretty much over the Need for Speed series, but dang it does look beautiful.